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Twitter re-examines Elon Musk’s bid, may be more receptive to a deal

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131–140 of 348 posts

Re: Twitter re-examines Elon Musk’s bid, may be more receptive to a deal

#131

I guess HN was wrong (top comments) that Musk couldn't possibly have a way to finance his deal. And here we are.

Really hard to imagine the richest and most accomplished dude on the planet not being able to secure funding. Somehow people still think he’s just a showman. At some point in time, accomplishments can’t be explained away

The problem with lending to him is most of his assets are TSLA shares. It's arguably absurdly overvalued as an automaker, and any effort to liquidate his position would be expensive since it would drive the price down. Someone did it, but I'm sure some people passed.

As someone else pointed out, TWTR isn't a great purchase, either. Its ad revenue isn't great, so if he defaults on the loan, the lender is stuck with an asset they don't want.

Re: Twitter re-examines Elon Musk’s bid, may be more receptive to a deal

#133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really hard to imagine the richest and most accomplished dude on the planet not being able to secure funding. Somehow people still think he’s just a showman. At some point in time, accomplishments can’t be explained away

The problem with lending to him is most of his assets are TSLA shares. It's arguably absurdly overvalued as an automaker, and any effort to liquidate his position would be expensive since it would drive the price down. Someone did it, but I'm sure some people passed. As someone else pointed out, TWTR isn't a great purchase, either. Its ad revenue isn't great, so if he defaults on the loan, the lender is stuck with an…

They did it at a 5x multiple. They can cover the loan as long as Tesla stays above 203.

Re: Twitter re-examines Elon Musk’s bid, may be more receptive to a deal

#134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The point is, building tunnels underground for personal transport vehicles as a "solution" to traffic is a terrible idea, and something only a showman can sell. The fundamental point of boring company is to reduce the cost of underground boring. Shoving cars through tunnels is a means to an end of reducing the cost of underground boring. It's about finding a path to make some kind, any kind, of money off of boring…

So, like subways? Or every single road and train tunnel anywhere on the planet so far? Moving transportation underground is such revolutionary idea that it exists for a century by now.

There are differences. I don't know if the idea will actually work but here is what I understand of it. Use an analogy of cities as computer chips/networks.

1. He wants to move roads to 3d just like computer chips are 3d. This should increase bandwidth.

2. He wants to packet switch the system instead of batch. This should lower latency.

3. For the first two to work, you need to greatly reduce the cost/speed to construct them. Think Moore's law.

4. One way to do this is to speed up the boring machines.

5. Another way is to lower the additional necessary equipment. Tunnels carrying internal combustion cars need air circulation lest people die from carbon monoxide poisoning/ lack of oxygen. EVs don't need that.

6. Smaller tunnels are much faster to construct so constructing one for a subway would be much slower than one for EVs.

Arguments against this can either attack the premise that cities are necessary (remote work), that bigger cities are necessary (why not have smaller cities), that existing or other transportation can handle it better, or one or more of the above chains of thought are flawed.

This line of thinking is also found in his latest factories where the line is just a line of cars moved by carriers that aren't physically anchored to the floor). He makes an analogy of factories as computer chips.

Re: Twitter re-examines Elon Musk’s bid, may be more receptive to a deal

#135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The downvotes in response to my question seems to imply a lot of people think a Musk acquisition would be a good thing. Maybe list some of the reasons why?

Free speech, A truer town square to debate important issues, Remove bots, add new features, a fresh take on how to raise profits, better management, and he even mentioned building a homeless shelter in their HQ.

What’s free speech?

Twitter can be a pretty hostile place if you’re not a white straight man, can’t see Musk making it any betters for those people who are currently harrassed fir being women, queer or colored

Re: Twitter re-examines Elon Musk’s bid, may be more receptive to a deal

#136

If Musk acquires Twitter, I will likely be deleting my account. Am I the only one? Would his acquisition spell the beginning of the end for Twitter?

just like all those Americans who totally ended up moving to Canada after the 2016 election like they said they would

Re: Twitter re-examines Elon Musk’s bid, may be more receptive to a deal

#137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s much worse than that. I had previously assumed Musk knew what he was doing and was fooling around on Twitter in an effort to (unethically) crush short sellers. Now it appears like he’s an utterly inept businessman who took the first verbal sign of interest, rushed it to Twitter as though the deal was complete, and then blew up the deal in a hissy fit. I still think what he’s done at SpaceX and Tesla is admirable…

He's not an inept businessman. He's someone with aspergers who takes someone at face value at all times. If someone says something is the case he believes them. He doesn't handle being deceived well nor does he know when it's happening. And actually he's not a "businessman" at all. He's an engineer at heart. "Businessman" would require strong social skills, not something someone with aspergers has good ability at.

Very interesting theory. But do you have a source?

Re: Twitter re-examines Elon Musk’s bid, may be more receptive to a deal

#138

If Musk acquires Twitter, I will likely be deleting my account. Am I the only one? Would his acquisition spell the beginning of the end for Twitter?

just like all those Americans who totally ended up moving to Canada after the 2016 election like they said they would

Not sure if joking but I know a number of people who actually did this.

Re: Twitter re-examines Elon Musk’s bid, may be more receptive to a deal

#139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, like subways? Or every single road and train tunnel anywhere on the planet so far? Moving transportation underground is such revolutionary idea that it exists for a century by now.

There are differences. I don't know if the idea will actually work but here is what I understand of it. Use an analogy of cities as computer chips/networks. 1. He wants to move roads to 3d just like computer chips are 3d. This should increase bandwidth. 2. He wants to packet switch the system instead of batch. This should lower latency. 3. For the first two to work, you need to greatly reduce the cost/speed to constr…

You lost me with comparing transportation infrastructure to micro processors and apllyin Moore's law to infrastructure work.

Re: Twitter re-examines Elon Musk’s bid, may be more receptive to a deal

#140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems a little dramatic to delete your account, don't you think?

It really depends on if he follows through on what he is proposing, which seems to be to allow for disinformation and hate speech. If that turns out to not be the case, then I might reconsider.

>If that turns out to not be the case, then I might reconsider.

It seems rather narcissistic to think that deleting your account would be of any consequence or inflict punishment on anyone. To put it bluntly, someone farting in their own car on the highway (and potentially soiling themselves, getting distracted, and causing a chain-reaction accident) has a greater potential impact to future events than whatever irrelevant drivel you (or I, or anyone) posts on Twitter.

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